Note values and rests
Every note value with its rest, its length in 4/4 and its British name. Plus the note tree, counting with »1 and 2 and«, the dot, the tie and the triplet.
The shape of a note says how long it sounds: an open head without a stem is a whole note, with a stem a half, a filled head with a stem a quarter, with a flag an eighth — every extra flag halves it. Each note has a rest of the same value that stays silent just as long.
The note tree
Every line lasts the same — one bar — and is only divided differently. A whole note is two halves, four quarters, eight eighths.
Every value with its rest
- Whole noteBritish: semibreve
note whole rest 4 beats in 4/4 · 1 per bar
- Half noteBritish: minim
note half rest 2 beats in 4/4 · 2 per bar
- Quarter noteBritish: crotchet
note quarter rest 1 beat in 4/4 · 4 per bar
- Eighth noteBritish: quaver
note eighth rest half a beat · 8 per bar
- Sixteenth noteBritish: semiquaver
note sixteenth rest a quarter of a beat · 16 per bar
- Thirty-second noteBritish: demisemiquaver
note thirty-second rest an eighth of a beat · 32 per bar
How to count
Quarter notes are counted with the numbers: 1 2 3 4.
Eighth notes get an »and« in between: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, written 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +.
Sixteenth notes fill every beat with four syllables: 1 e and a, 2 e and a — that is how drummers say it, and it is the smoothest way to count.
Dot, tie, triplet
The dot lengthens a note by half its value: a dotted half lasts three beats, a dotted quarter one and a half.
The tie joins two notes of the same pitch into one: two tied halves are a single note of four beats — that is how a sound is written across the bar line.
The triplet puts three notes in the time of two: three eighths under the bracket last one beat together, as long as a quarter.
All time signatures · Metronome · Clefs · Reading music — the start · All terms
Anotona does this for you
Photograph a page of sheet music or play the melody — Anotona finds the key, engraves the notes and transposes them into any other. Free.
See AnotonaEvery note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.